The birthrate in Germany fell again in 2006 to an average of 1.33 children, giving the country one of Europe's lowest birthrates, the national statistics' office said on Monday.

FROM EARTHTIMES:"Germany's birth rate is sinking despite many years of tax breaks for parents and plans to expand kindergartens to help working parents, statistics released Monday show. Last year's tally of live births in the nation of 80 million was 672,700, a drop from the previous year by 13,100, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden."

"That is the average number of children that would be born to a woman between ages 15 and 49 if she followed the current behaviour in that age group. The rate declined from 1.34 last year.

"The German government has voiced concern over the low birth rate, but opinion remains divided in Germany about how to encourage more births or if it is even possible to alter the birth rate by any government policy.

"Germany has a long-standing tax rebate for children and education is free. The government has agreed to expand kindergarten provision, which would help families where both parents work."

"...if we look through Europe we shall find on the whole that just those nations and countries have lost their faith in the divinity of Christ, who have given up devotion to His Mother..."Card. Newman

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"How I hate this folly of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If the gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?" Pascal

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"Socialists, Communists and Nihilists...strive to uproot the foundations of civilized society."Pope Leo XIII

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"No one can be, at the same time, a sincere Catholic and a true socialist."Pope Pius XI

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WHAT IS AGAINST TRUTH CANNOT BE JUST. St Augustine_________

"Whatever a man seeks, honors, or exalts more than God, that is the god of his idolatry" Archb. Ullathorne

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"Individual liberty, freed from all bonds and all laws, all objective and social values, is in reality only a death-dealing anarchy." Pope Pius XIII

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"To understand how indispensable the Eucharist is to the practice of Christian chastity is to understand the meaning of Christianity. When Christ told us, "Without me, you can do nothing," He meant this to be taken literally. Without the constant help of His grace to enlighten our darkened minds and strengthen our weak wills, all the moral precepts of the New Testament are so much pious rhetoric or religious jargon." Fr John Hardon

"Accumulating knowledge is a form of avarice and lends itself to another version of the Midas story ...man [is] so avid for knowledge that everything that he touches turns to facts; his faith becomes theology; his love becomes lechery; his wisdom becomes science; pursuing meaning, he ignores truth." Malcolm Muggeridge

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"Now, tell me whether, when you enter church to hear Mass, you thoroughly well consider that you are going up as it were to Calvary, to be present at the death of the Redeemer... Wickedness is hideous at any time, and in any place; but sins committed during the time of Mass, and before the altar, draw down after them the curse of God."St. Leonard-Port Maurice___________

"Paganism is as old as human history. In one sentence, paganism is a culture of untruth."Fr John Hardon S.J.

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"That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error."

Pope St. Pius X,Vehementor Nos________

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."Flannery O'Connor